


What Makes A Monster? | What Makes A Target?

by beauregret



Category: inFAMOUS (Video Games), inFAMOUS: Second Son
Genre: AU, Gen, POV Second Person, TW for mentions of past torture and brainwashing, canon-divergent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:09:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23761351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beauregret/pseuds/beauregret
Summary: Reggie had, in many ways, died on the day that you were taken to Curdun Cay.And the person that you are now? That's someone else entirely.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	What Makes A Monster? | What Makes A Target?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, I'm finally writing some fanfic for the Infamous games!
> 
> This is actually a completely spur-of-the-moment idea I had yesterday that gave me some inspiration, and because I wanted to try my hand at writing second-person POV.
> 
> As mentioned in the tags, there is a slight mention of torture and brainwashing in this fic, but no graphic details.
> 
> Enjoy and thanks for reading!

**i.**

Your first horrific thought is:  _ have I pleased her? _ Never mind the fact that you just put down a hundred of her best men, or the realisation that you could easily take on a hundred more.  _ Was she pleased with the progress that was made?  _ And that's when you see it. 

A spark; a small gleam in her eyes and a stern smile that tells you  _ yes, she's pleased _ .

"I think you're nearly ready." Ready for what, you don't know; but when it came to  _ her _ , the questions had been taken out of you the day they made you into something more than what you were before. 

You know what the definition of obedience is: following  _ her _ orders. Doing what  _ she _ wants you to do. Anything else isn't obedience; questioning her motives isn't obedience.

And now she gives you a job to do, a target to hunt down - a test of that obedience. This wasn't like your fights, where you knew who you were fighting against and everything happened in a controlled environment. This time you would be out in the world, and your enemy would be unpredictable and ruthless in their attempts to escape you.

But she thinks you're ready, so you're going to be ready. You're given a name; a location; and transport to Seattle to save you from having to make the long journey alone.

You see daylight and feel fresh air for the first time in a while, but neither of those things has the same effect on you that it used to  _ before _ . You don't stop to take it in this time, because why would you? You have a job to do, and it's time to get to work.

After all, a target's a target.

  
  
  


**ii.**

You hand the unconscious prisoner over to the waiting DUP soldiers, and  _ she's _ waiting with them, visibly impressed by your work.

What was it, that he'd called you before you knocked him out cold?  _ Rowe _ . He's not wrong about that part, but something about the way he said it makes your teeth grind when you linger on it. Like it's an incomplete name. 

Also like he'd expected you to be a long lost hero, right before you threw him against the wall with your water, but that feels like a more insignificant detail. You should've asked him questions; should've asked him how he knew your name and why it felt so bitter to you yet seemed to mean something so much more to him. But you don't ask questions. You hunt down defiant conduits.

You know what the definition of defiance is: going against the DUP's orders. Going against  _ her _ orders, if you want to get technical about it. These  _ bio-terrorists _ were going against orders to turn themselves in, and that makes them defiant by definition. The protestors trying to argue for their rights were going against orders to cease their gatherings - that too makes them defiant.

And you're the guy hunting them down for that defiance. When a conduit vanishes without a trace? That's you. When a protest gets just a touch too messy to be pinned on any one instigator? That's also you.

After a few of these jobs, she says she's ready to send you against the biggest example of that defiance, and gives you a new file with a new name and a new face to hunt down.

For the briefest of moments, you feel like you should be concerned that his surname was Rowe, just like yours.  _ Ah-- _ the conduit from before, you recall. If this guy was the biggest of the DUP's problems, it explained why your first target had spoken your name like he'd expected something different from you. Pity he ran into the wrong Rowe, really.

You also feel like you should worry that you swear you've seen this guy before, and you saw him somewhere too real to possibly be just another one of your nightmares. But you shrug it off, because what does it matter?

A target's a target.

  
  
  


**iii.**

His name is Delsin, and he's calling you a name that you don't want to hear.

"Reg, this isn't you!"  _ Reg _ . That felt just as incomplete a name as when that other target had called you  _ Rowe _ . It still left a bitter taste in your mouth because you felt different these days, and you resent the way that whether he knows it or not, he's provoking you into feeling something more than just anger.

Well, you're provoked alright, and you make him aware of that by trying to slam another wave of water into him.

"Reggie, you're my brother, please don't do this!"  _ Reggie. Brother _ . They felt right; you felt your heart pull at those words, like it was trying to return to a sense of feeling at home again. But in your head, they sound wrong. In your head, that's not who you are anymore.

Reggie had, in many ways, died on the day that you were taken to Curdun Cay.

And the person that you are now? That's someone else entirely.

That feeling of those words sounding wrong make you feel sick to your stomach; you retaliate by trying to move up close to land a punch on Delsin, but he evades you far too easily.

That's the problem with these three - yes, three;  _ she _ forgot to tell you that he had a neon conduit and a video conduit working closely with him. They were getting just too good at evading everything you tried to throw at them, and you're powerful, but you're not invincible. You too, have limits.

But the neon and the video conduits seem to defer to Delsin when it comes to their plan of attack, and Delsin is your main target. So he is the one you focus on most, and you see the tears falling from his eyes; and you hear the panic in the way his voice is strained every time he shouts at you.

You'd roll your eyes, if you weren't so hellbent on finishing your mission.

"Reggie  _ please _ , I don't want to fight you, stop this!" Why should you, when nobody stopped for you when  _ you _ were the one begging for mercy?

You know the definition of mercy: being spared from death. The DUP offered mercy when they took conduits to Curdun Cay, instead of leaving them to face mob justice on the streets. You had been given mercy when the pain from the needles and the water had almost killed you, and instead of dying you had become someone much more powerful.

He's still calling you Reggie; still calling you Reg; still calling you _ brother _ . Still trying to get you to stop. But you don't stop willingly, because why would you?

A target's still a target.

  
  
  


**iv.**

His name is Eugene, and he says he's sorry but he can't  _ and won't _ let you go back to her.

You need energy. It felt so wrong - and yet, so  _ normal _ in its own perverse way - to not have the feeling of water rushing through your veins. You'd used it all up trying to take Delsin down, but the three of them had always seemed to be one step ahead of you, and they'd worn you down until you couldn't fight back.

Not a single one of them at any point tried to actively hurt you. That, you didn't understand - you are their  _ enemy _ ; what reason did they have to treat you like a friend? Yet your mind screams at you to try and  _ remember _ all the same whenever you look at any of them.

Eugene looks at you and seems to see his life flash before his eyes every time you look back at him. He's terrified of you. Like he's watching a ghost or an old nightmare come back to haunt him. And still he pushes on all the same, to ask you to  _ please work with them and trust them and they're just trying to save you from Augustine. _

And still you refuse because you don't need their mercy or pity. They're not your friends, they're your  _ targets _ .

You don't know if it's a stroke of genius or madness that inspires Eugene to make a promise to you, after two days straight of you refusing to work with them.  _ Just let Delsin take your hand _ , he tells you.  _ Let him see what happened to you, and let yourself see it too, and you can leave afterwards if that's what you want. _

You scoff at that; what good was that possibly going to do? And that's why you take Eugene up on that arrangement, because what did you have to lose? You could go back, regain your energy, and return for round two in which you would be sure that you did not lose again.

Delsin calls Eugene insane; Eugene asks Delsin to trust him. 

Then Delsin takes your hand, and at first the pain is almost unbearable - until it suddenly isn't, and he's twisting in your grip, like he's watching a horror movie play out in front of him.

And that's when you see it too. A rush of memories passing through his mind and your mind. And within the memories...a new person.

No. Not new. It's the person you see most in your nightmares. The person always trying to remind you of something you didn't want to remember. Except this isn't a nightmare. This is a memory. And that's not your nightmare. It's  _ you _ . 

The moment Delsin pulls away from you, he ends up doubled over, fighting against the urge to feel sick. And you feel the full horror of Curdun Cay rush back to you in one hard hit.

This is the moment the cracks in her control over you start to form. When you first start to remember who you really are.

A target's a target, but you're not sure who your target is anymore.

  
  
  


**v.**

Her name is Fetch, and she tells you everything.

Everything you thought you knew was actually a lie. Your definition of obedience. Lie. Your definition of defiance. Lie. Your definition of mercy.  _ Lie _ . 

Is anything real?  _ Yes _ , she tells you. A lot of things are real. Like that time you felt like you could  _ die _ from the pain you were in, and everyone around you ignored you when you begged them to stop. Or when the first needle enters your vein and you feel water where you should've been feeling blood; and it's the first time you feel like you've lost who you really are. Or the time you cracked and the water you felt before kills a guard outright, and you heard the sound of  _ her _ voice praising you for what you'd done, and the promise that you would now be free from all the pain that came before.

Did Fetch know all these feelings too?  _ Not quite _ , she answers. There is neon in her where there is water in you, and her powers came in an instant whereas yours came to you far  _ slower _ . But she knew of your conditioning, of  _ her _ voice slowly creeping inside your head, encouraging you to kill; discouraging you from  _ questioning _ .

Monsters had been made out of both of you.

Monsters don't get to live their lives completely free of their past pains  _ (another lie, you realise) _ . 

Tens, hundreds of memories of the pain you went through crash into you at once. Someone has to pay.  _ She _ has to pay. Your identity can come back to you afterwards, when you have the time to find it again, but you have to find an outlet for your pain first.

Fetch has a moment of hesitation, then decides she's going to help you. Was she helping to find her own outlet, or to stop you from being too destructive when finding yours? You don't know, and you don't care.

A target's a target; and yours has a name - Brooke Augustine.

  
  
  


**vi.**

They beg you to stop because  _ god damn it Reg this wasn't like you. _

Wasn't it? Was that before or after Augustine condemned all but two of your tribe to a slow and painful death?

Was that before or after you saw what she'd done to Eugene and Fetch and the way it had scarred them both, almost beyond repair?

Was that before or after she had you snatched off the street and turned into a broken conduit? 

For a moment, you consider ignoring all of them, or pretending you hadn't heard them. Augustine had given you many reasons to show her no mercy - she had pushed and pushed and  _ fucking pushed _ at all of your limits. And everyone knows, when you keep pushing at someone's limits? Sooner or later they crack.

Even demons run when a good man goes to war.

The DUP is the demon, and you are the good man. And being the good man makes you realise that yes, this wasn't like you. The four of you had taken her down, and you had brought her to her knees; but no amount of violence is going to undo what she did to you. You won't stoop as low as she did. Because you know you're better than that.

Everyone breathes a sigh of relief when you step away from Augustine. Everyone jumps when you decide to settle for throwing the water in your arm into a nearby wall as hard as you possibly can, just to get the energy and the urge to get revenge out of your system before you changed your mind.

Delsin traps her using her own powers before she can take advantage of your mercy. But you don't feel like you've given her mercy. You feel like mercy would've been if you had killed her, but you are instead leaving her to the hands of justice, knowing that she will have to answer for all the lives she's ruined over the years.

That was a reassuring thought; a mercy granted to your conscience.

Now there are no more lies. And soon, no more DUP. When you turn your back on Augustine and let the authorities take her to face justice...now what? Whatever your heart desires, you suppose...except you're not the same person that you were even a month ago, and your heart desires a part of you that you fear you'll never reclaim.

Question: how do you undo what you've become?

Answer: you don't. you  _ can't _ .

But you  _ will _ reclaim your personality and your memories. The water will always be there; the hidden violence threatening to spill from your veins will always be there; but you are not a weapon anymore, and you have three conduits by your side willing to help you pick up the missing pieces of your life and put them back together again.

Eugene knew of recovery. Fetch knew of healing. Delsin knew of identity. You deserved to know of those things too, and you see that in the way they all look at you; proud that you were able to walk away before you stained your hands with blood forever.

This setback will always be there at the back of your mind, the same way broken glass always has those hairline fractures after it gets put back together. But you will get your identity back, and things will eventually start to feel more like the old normal again, even if it's never going to completely get to that point.

A target's no longer a target; you're done with all of that now. 

Your name is Reggie Rowe - and you're not a monster.


End file.
